jrlr
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Posts posted by jrlr
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After rarely watching this show for the past three years of soap opera, I tuned in to the 2-hour season finale (recorded). I fast-forwarded through most of the first hour of that wretched hostage porn and hysteria, hoping the second hour would be better. I gave up on it fifteen minutes in, feeling irritated, bored and pissed off at myself for the time I wasted. What a pile of crap this once-great show has become. And to think it's outlasting the original L&O, which deserved a 20th season. This certainly doesn't.
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When Stan was researching the Jennings and saw there was no record of the travel agency, I was fully expecting an "Aha!" Moment, but Stan barely reacted. Wouldn't that be a huge red flag?
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Don't know if this is the right thread, but Ruthie Miles (who played Young Hee) just lost her unborn baby, two months after a car crashed into her and a friend, killing Mile's four year old and her friend's toddler. This is beyond heartbreaking.
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2 hours ago, atlantaloves said:
Okay folks, what did we think of the first episode? Reviews please! I tell you, it totally wore me out. I am the world's biggest Cumberbatch fan, so I seriously have to love it, but frankly, so far I am not. It is JUST TOO MUCH...too much everything. I am having hard time with it, but of course will watch every golden moment, and keep the entire series stored on my DVR. ?
I had exactly the same reaction. I love Cumberbatch and will watch to the end of this, but I was exhausted by this first episode.
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12 hours ago, btho1776 said:
Question- why did the boy in childhood flashbacks get chosen? Looks nothing like Cumberbatch.
Excellent question. The boy was so markedly different looking that it pulled me right out of the story - he even had dark eyes. Maybe there's a point to this involving Patrick's drug-fueled perceptions, but I can't imagine what that would be.
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41 minutes ago, MissBluxom said:
Oh the Horror!
To think the very first album I ever bought was "Horses by Patti Smith". I really loved that album for about 3 years.
But the dirge played during Elizabeth's trip to the lake (I assume it was a lake) and the dumping of the body parts was
Broken Flag by The Patti Smith Group
Yuck!
At least I discovered this site which I can use to find any music played during a TV show. That was a real good find.
https://www.tunefind.com/show/the-americans/season-6/63453
Thanks for posting the tunefind link! "Horses" drove me crazy when it was used in Ray Donovan while Abby was dying, but the dirge didn't bother me as much here.
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I wasn't particularly bothered by Stan's questions/reactions/search because I think they did a decent job of portraying him as a man who is (okay, maybe not the best spook in the world) but suddenly very conflicted about P&E - more P than E actually. Maybe I'm reading into it, but it seemed to me that the possible reality of his neighbors being illegals has been cropping up for him for awhile, and the not-coincidence of the Chicago shoot-out and the Jennings' travels started pinging around in his mind, enough to question Henry and search the house. On one hand, he's suspicious, on the other hand these people have been friends of his for years now and IRL when you start to suspect someone you know and care about of something shady, there's a part of your mind that just won't accept it until forced to do so. And then there's the added probem of Stan being an FBI agent who will probably be disgraced when the truth about P&E is finally revealed.
Paige is once again a badly written and badly acted part. The only thing that rang true to me was when she said she has no friends, because it seems perfectly logical that spy parents would try to keep their kids somewhat isolated (within a normal school and social framework) so that no one gets too close to the family. And because Paige is by nature such a whiny, needy and utterly incurious person who just wants to please mom, of course she doesn't have - or even seem to want - a social circle or support system outside the family. It's a role that could have been really interesting as a forcibly isolated teen/lost soul, but instead, Paige just comes off as a weak, flat character who barely has the makings of a good file clerk.
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On 4/28/2018 at 2:00 AM, AdebisiLives said:
Bosch is the WORST teammate ever... always going rogue on the case & leaving his partners in the dark. I don't know if we're supposed to like him, but I do NOT like the guy. To me he's no anti-hero, just an asshole.
Also, the daughter storyline felt very out of place... tone completely changed & episodes lost all momentum in those scenes. I think it could have been left out completely w/no effect on the plot... perhaps the show runners are trying to pull a more diverse audience or something? For me, it was boring & took me out of the episode.
You must not watch The Americans anymore because Paige is definitely not a "waste of space" character... she has a huge role in the plot, whereas the Maddie character here does not.
I still watch the Americans, and I still think Paige is a waste of space - a badly writtten, poorly acted character. Taking up more plot time with Paige is just irritating.
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6 hours ago, Bannon said:
Yeah, Paige could end up in purple shroud, wearing white tennis shoes, guzzling the kool aid, as the comet Hale-Bopp approaches.
LOL - if only!
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I just watched a 2017 CNN report on the "real" Philizabeths who were busted in 2010-ish, and there were ten of them, all living as couples all over the U.S. The FBI timed it so that they would be able to pick all of them up at the same time, and it sounds like next week may be based on that. Of course all ten of them were returned to Russia in exchange for prisoners in Russia who had spied for the U.S., but I don't think that's where the show is going to go. This has a rundown on the real-lifers and their children and what happened to them:
https://qz.com/926553/what-happened-to-the-real-russian-spies-who-inspired-the-americans/
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This may be the first time I haven't been annoyed to death by a teenage daughter in the mix; The Americans' Paige and Homeland's Dana Brody are and were two of the most unneeded, irritating, waste-of-space chacters ever. Maddie, on the other hand, seems to me to be a fullly realized young woman with an actual place in the plot, and I think Madison Lintz is impressive in the part. Like most of you, I could have done with a little less walkabout, but even that didn't really bother me because it was such a great portayal of grief. Also, the last scene on Ep 10 with Harry and Maddie scattering Elanor's ashes was visually beautiful and a great way to end the season.
I am, however, very impatient and bored with Jerry Edgar's home life.
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I thought it was Wellington who was the Useful Idiot, although there is certainly more than one character UI could apply to.
The hospital sequence was idiotic.
Carrie's hallucination - I guess it was supposed to shock us, but I immediately started laughing that this (purposeful?) spin on the evil twin cliche.
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40 minutes ago, JocelynCavanaugh said:
Are you trying to say that we’re supposed to view Carrie as an autistic character? I don’t see that.
I don't either, and when I read the post mentioning autism I was wondering if I completely missed something very important. Has autim even been mentioned? I thought the show was dealing with Carrie being bi-polar, not autistic. Have to say Claire Danes does a scarily convincing job of conveying bi-polar disorder.
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Brenda Spencer was the shooter in the first mass school shooting that happened in San Diego in 1979 (two killed, eight wounded). She was 16 years old when she used a .22 rifle to shoot up the playground of an elementary school across the street from her house - the Boomtown Rats' song "I Don't Like Mondays" is about this crime. I've always been surprised that no one has done a series or film about her as the original school shooter, especially since most (if not all) of these crimes are committed by young men, not young women.
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28 minutes ago, qtpye said:
In line with dishing it out and not taking it, he freely asked about Sarah's father's death, even before he knew her very well. He bring's up Moore's fiance deserting him several times and does not mind opening up emotional wounds in people that he cares about. However, dare ask about his baggage and you will be struck in the face....really?
I was really hoping Sarah would slap the increasingly insufferable Kreizler right back, and hard. Given no reason (other than his exceedingly high opinion of his own skills) for Kreizler's grandiosity and bullying, then each episode produces less reason to sympathize with him or even root for him. Do I want the killer to be caught? Of course. But as it stands now, I'd love to see the (boringly) tortured and smug little shit be one-upped by his crew and be proven wrong about his theories about the killer.
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4 hours ago, dleighg said:
just happened onto this article about "outrageous" fashion in Europe this runway season. Certainly more avant guarde than anything we saw in this episode. But Josh would fit right in!
Checked out those looks, to me it is crap piled on crap piled on more crap. The say outrageous, I say bullshit. Or the emperor's new clothes. Or The Hunger Games.
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If Alyssa's dress was stitched closed a bit in the front, it would make a darling dress for a six year old playing fairy princess. But for an adult with her boobs on display, it's just. . . no.
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Paige has been consistently portrayed as book-capable but life-stupid, without a curious or original thought in her head. She glommed onto religion for identity, now she's glomming onto an identity as a spy for a country she really has no relation to at all - especially since she only recently learned the truth about her parents and their agenda. Given that plus the fact that the actress is utterly bland and monotonous, I can't see how this will work without more suspension of disbelief than this series has ever required (and it has required quite a bit).
BTW, do P&E remember that they have another kid? Where is Henry - who would make a much, much better and more interesting junior spy than Paige - supposed to be during all of this?
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On 2/14/2018 at 8:34 AM, margol29 said:
I always found this story fascinating. I was just a few years younger than PH. I always thought that the SLA brain-washed her. Kind of a cross between Stockholm syndrome and brain-washing.
I was surprised to see one of the kidnappers being on the show. It looks like he is out of prison. Unless that is a fake set to fake us out.
Great coverage of the story.
I followed the story closely at the time, lived in L.A. when the SLA shoot-out happened. I was totally anti-war, protested, etc., but the actions of these groups were beyond the pale. I agree with you about the brainwashing and Stockholm syndrome, and always thought that the failure of the predictably arrogant F. Lee Bailey to convince the jury that those were real mitigating factors was a travesty (although PH spent a minimal time in prison)..
Bill Harris is so amazingly smug, somehow still justifying the group's lofty "ideals" co-existing with their criminal and violent actions. Bullshit excuses for horrific behavior makes it's hard for me to believe a word he says about what really happened. It's great that he's done his time and apparently leads a productive life, but he's so VERY clearly delighted to take the spotlight and expound on his version of history that it's stomach-turning. I'm kind of disappointed that Jeffery Toobin would put so much emphasis on Harris.
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2 hours ago, the-grey-lady said:
Oh my gaaaawd, that speech from Barba about how Olivia "gave him" shades of gray and "opened his heart" and all that BS. I can't believe that dreck is the last we get of Barba. How did RE get through that scene without laughing?
Yes! I guess for some unfathomable reason,someone decided Barba should exit the show babbling like some idiot on acid. I kept waiting to hear "because of you, Olivia, I see dancing unicorns and sparkly rainbows, I hear musical birthday cards singing to me, and bounding across fields of personalized fluffy clouds, here's my dog Fido who I know died when I was six even though my parents told me he went to live on a farm." God God, WHAT THE HELL got into the writers?
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Merline (crappy) or Josh (trashy) should've gone home. Amanda's was meh, but still so much better than either of those. What happened to "I question your taste" vis-a-vis Josh? Not that I question it - it's pure garbage. I was fine with the win, but thought Char should have been in the top three.
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Loved the Grace-in-Home-Depot story, and okay with the Frankie-Teddy reunion. But what was the point of the Bud-Cody-Allison interaction? Okay, we get it - Cody and Allison don't like each other. So what? The whole "we came to an agreement to dislike each other politely" angle as a way to show how "adult" they are seemed utterly silly and inconsequential to me - the whole thing felt like padding which episodes this short do NOT need.
Also, Robert proves once again that he is a self-absorbed jerk. Got it, again.
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What I'm curious about is if Frankie ever told Saul that before they got married, her sister had told her that she thought Saul was gay. It seems like a pretty big issue given the fact that Saul has to know that Frankie and Teddy haven't spoken for over forty years, yet it's never been mentioned - a very convenient and sort of sloppy "surprise" to spring this late in the show (and their lives).
As for Robert, he is so far out of line with his new neighbors that it's difficult for me to even watch. I've seen posts here that commiserate with his feelings and his regrets about his own life, but how exactly does that give him the right to intrude so profoundly on the lives of people he barely knows? To me it just makes him seem like a sanctimonious little shit with an unwarranted belief in his own insights and importance.
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The first two episodes had me worried that the show had slipped both in comedy and edginess, but this episode was right on point. The housebreaking was great ("ouch, my knee," "which knee?") and the improv that Frankie and Grace used to convince Arnie that they were legitimately there had me laughing out loud. I like the addition of Sheree to the mix, but I'm glad she'll be in her own house and not at the beach with Grace and Frankie. Brianna continues to impress me with how howlingly NUTS she is, and her interaction with her assistant is hilarious. And I continue to be bemused - but not necessarily amused - at Robert and Saul, who seem to be turning increasingly into cliched characters, although I do like how they and Grace and Frankie seem to have reached some sort of friendly peace.
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S06.E09: Jennings, Elizabeth
in The Americans [V]
Was he the schlubby lawyer who McCoy et al seriously underestimated at first?